Togher Tyres named Tyre Retailer of the Year

TOGHER Tyres of Castlebar have been named Tyre Retailer of the Year 2018 in the Irish Auto Trade Awards, as well as being declared the winner of the Connaught/Ulster Tyre Retailer of the Year 2018.

This has come on top of being National Tyre Retailer of the Year for Ireland and Northern Ireland in 2015, writes Tom Gillespie.

Customer loyalty has been the bedrock of the company’s success for the past 35 years and their Breaffy Road operation is a business leader, putting Togher Tyres, who are partners with Bridgestone, 10 years ahead of their competitors.

Joe Togher, and his wife Eileen, who employ 12 people, including his brothers Mattie and Micheal and his son Damian, started the business on March 17, 1983.

Joe took up the story: "We were looking for a place to rent in Castlebar which was very hard to get for the right price at the time. We ended up going out the Westport Road at the back of Paddy Cannon’s. We were there for a year and a half.

"Then Sean Mulroy built a filling station across the road here and we rented a place from Sean. That was our move into town. Business started growing from there.

"We had a lot of good loyal customers that started dealing with me then and they are still dealing with me today, 35 years on.

"In 1986 we purchased a site on the Breaffy Road from Joe Mulroy Contractors and we built the first place of our own. That was the year I got married.

"We had two bays and an office. We had three or four lifts inside so that we could work with five or six different vehicles at a time. The business kept building from there.

"Then in the ‘90s we bought another site for the truck section and we had two big bays dedicated for trucks, which left the other building with two bays totally for cars.

"A lot of my customers are friends over the years. A lot of business people and other customers have died over the years but their sons and families have carried on business with us."

They started doing exhausts and light mechanical works but the business was getting bigger and bigger so, as Joe said, they had to be master of one and not jacks of all trades.

"In 1999 I purchased the site in front here and we looked at the opportunity of building a nice modern place with seven bays to cater for cars, vans, 4x4s and commercials,” said Joe referencing the Breaffy Road site.

"In the business I am hands-on on the floor. I worry about my customers. If you are not on the floor you will not have a business. To have a good business you need loyal customers and a dedicated staff."

Togher Tyres have a dedicated waiting room for customers and a play area for kids.

Joe’s first job was selling papers for Lilly McDonnell in Tucker Street. He said: "I would go in at 4.30 to five o’clock to collect the Evening Press and Evening Herald and my job was to go out and sell the papers in shops, pubs and restaurants. My other stop was always the hospital. But the hospital door would be closed when I got here and I would not be allowed in. But I used to ring the bell and ask for Matron Kathleen Duffy, Adrian and Liam Coady’s aunt. Once I got her the door was opened and you were in and I went around and sold the papers to the patients.

"We were born in New Line, across from Peter Dever’s Lone Star Filling Station. I was filling petrol and diesel there and fixing punctures by hand. I remember doing one for Brendan Grace once on a Jag he had. Over the years I have done them for other personalities like Joe Dolan, who had a Merc."

Joe has the most modern equipment in his workshop. "We renew our equipment regularly, every four to five years," he said. "We have seven bays and it costs €60,000 a bay for equipment.

"We have pioneered the style and a lot of people from around the country have come to see what we have done here. They were in from Spain from Bridgestone to see what we have done. The MD of Bridgestone, Des Collins, flew into Dublin and got a helicopter and landed at Castlebar Airport beside us. He asked was Castlebar ready for this. He was flabbergasted with the set-up. I believe we are 10 years ahead of the competition."

Joe went to school in St. Patrick’s National School and to the tech, where he did not wait long. "After a year I ran out the door," he admitted.

Joe’s father John used to drive a truck for Loughran’s and his contacts on the road helped him along and brought in a lot of business.

Joe told me: "We have always been advertising with The Connaught Telegraph as far back as 1983 with P.J. Hennelly."

The recently modernised Togher Tyres are located at Breaffy Road, Castlebar, and can be contacted on (094) 9023531.